Wireless communication systems have been developed to support higher data rate in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for wireless data traffic. For an increase in data rate of wireless communication systems, technology development has been carried out based on communication technologies such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), mainly to improve the spectral efficiency. However, the surging demand for wireless data traffic may not be fully met only with these spectral efficiency improvement technologies.
Recently, the increasing demand for smart devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs and the explosive growth of applications that operate on the smart devices and require a lot of traffic have further accelerated the demand for wireless data traffic. One way to overcome the traffic increase is to consider the use of ultra wideband frequencies in a microwave domain. However, wireless communication in a microwave band may suffer from an increase in propagation loss such as a path loss and a return loss due to the frequency characteristics of the microwave band. As a result, the range of radio waves is reduced causing a significant decrease in coverage. On the other hand, in case of wireless communication in the microwave band, the wavelength is very short due to the frequency characteristics of the microwave band, making it easy to apply beamforming that uses a plurality of small antennas. Accordingly, it is possible to seek new ways to increase the range of radio waves and expand the coverage by mitigating the path loss of radio waves by applying beamforming technology.
Beamforming technology may also be used for transmission of overhead channels including system information, such as a Broadcast Channel (BCH), a Synchronization Channel (SCH), and so forth, as well as transmission of data channels. In particular, a BCH needs to be stably received by all terminals in a cell in a sense that the BCH includes system information for network access.
Therefore, there is a need for a technique for applying beamforming to transmission of a BCH to enable terminals in a cell to effectively and stably receive the BCH.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.